Bill Cotterell: Politics prevent opening the door to felon voting

7:18 PM,
Oct. 10, 2012

Bill Cotterell

Written by

Bill Cotterell
Florida Voices

There is really no good reason for denying convicted felons the right to vote once they finish their prison sentences and resolve other obstacles to full citizenship, like completion of probation and restitution to victims.

But the state of Florida is settling for a couple of bad reasons.

The first reason amounts to "We don't have to." Last year Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet reversed the policy championed by former Gov. Charlie Crist and reinstated a lengthy and difficult process for restoring voting rights to people convicted of a felony. ...